Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To object to a religious song at a baby class?

602 replies

SecondTimer2019 · 06/11/2019 11:22

I take my baby (6mo) to a baby sensory class and this week the theme was 'rainbows'. At the end one of the songs played was 'Who put the colours in the rainbow?', which I remember from my childhood.

It asks who created all the amazing things in the world and ends by saying things like 'It can't be chance' and 'God made all of these'.

I'm not religious and think this environment should be secular. Obviously my baby can't understand the lyrics yet but I still feel it is inappropriate.

I'm thinking of contacting the organisers to let them know my feelings.

AIBU?

OP posts:
hallohallohallo · 07/11/2019 11:25

At the end one of the songs played was 'Who put the colours in the rainbow?', which I remember from my childhood.

What affect did the song have on you and your life OP that you now do not want it sung for other children?

Ginnymweasley · 07/11/2019 12:23

I just got back from my dds harvest festival.... it had a couple of hymns is it. Also some modern music. I will be going to her nativity in december to. We are atheist, I just told her some people believe in god and some people don't. The UK isnt secular is it anyway?

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 07/11/2019 12:34

The harvest festival is my favourite. DS has to go to the cathedral a couple of time a week and various other services. I get to go too and love the architecture (and not having to pay to go inside).

I really can't say it has made him a better or worse person. What I am concerned about is certain lobby groups (being paid to) going into the schools and telling the kids that certain things ARE THE TRUTH (or else) and not even a whiff of 'some people believe...'.

Now that is something to get all hot under the collar about.

BertrandRussell · 07/11/2019 12:46

Nothing wrong with openly religious ceremonies. Lots wrong with religion by “stealth”.

bellinisurge · 07/11/2019 12:57

Explain how a daft song in a baby class is religion by stealth "? Do people who go to faith schools (and you don't have to, btw) lose the power of critical thinking?

cabbageking · 07/11/2019 13:10

Unless you were asked to do an act of worship then it was just a song.

There are lots of pop songs based on bible verses but they are just songs. Amazing grace, Christmas Carols, Go tell it on the mountains,
Rivers of Babylon by Boney M, are religious. Some nursery rhymes are based on Catholic/ Protestant conflict.
If you want this censored then the group has to stop all songs and nursery rhymes so as not to offend anyone.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 07/11/2019 14:01

I remember watching a group rehearsing for a (church) concert - they were singing mainstream pop and rock songs that could easily have been interpreted as referring to God. Have you not seen Sister Act, OP?

BertrandRussell · 07/11/2019 14:06

@ LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD. The significance of your anecdote is that they were rehearsing for a church concert....

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 07/11/2019 14:08

Yes - that was the venue - they do have very good acoustics. It was a concert in a church, not a church concert IYSWIM

BertrandRussell · 07/11/2019 14:10

Sorry- your use of the term “church concert” confused me..

TheNavigator · 07/11/2019 14:26

I sympathise OP, of all the twee christian songs my children sang at primary school, this was the most teeth grittingly annoying. My scientist DH would refuse to sing along and at the 'who made everything?' questions would mutter 'nothing, it evolved'.

I actually think it is more irritating in a school, which is supposed to be a place of learning, than in a baby class - but it is a silly and annoying song wherever you hear it.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 07/11/2019 14:32

Look you really can't do any worse than 'wind the bobbin up' you really can't.

LittleAndOften · 07/11/2019 15:06

Anyone else had this song stuck in their head for 2 days?! 😂

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 07/11/2019 15:08

No - I have 'walking in a winter wonderland' stuck in my head as I saw the ferris wheel going up.

DioneTheDiabolist · 07/11/2019 15:21

No, I have Wind The Fucking Bobbin in my head. Thanks for that LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 07/11/2019 15:23

Sorry. I never knew about that song until I joined. I didn't know how irritating it was until I heard it at Money Music when DS was tiny.

However - I see your 'wind the bobbin up' and raise you 'If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake'

ButterTarts · 07/11/2019 15:42

I wouldn't like it either OP and I wish religious worship would be limited to those who want to partake in it, or discussed in an educational context, and not be thrust upon children as the default.

But unfortunately that isn't the country we live (yet).

cannycat20 · 07/11/2019 17:02

@cabbageking I think your response is spot on.

I was idly contemplating yesterday just how difficult it is these days to not offend anyone. I do a lot of (non-fiction) writing and I try very hard to make sure I use inclusive language and the correct contemporary terminology and all the rest, but sometimes that means you end up with incredibly bland work that says precisely nothing. I swear it's one of the reasons The Independent is now online only - they tried so hard to be utterly impartial in their presentation of politics in particular that they ended up neutralised, not neutral.

I'm debating if it might be time to start a thread about politically correct nursery rhymes, stories and the like? Along the lines of "Baa baa woolly sheep" or "This little phalange went to market"... I know there are some already out there.

And then there's the whole "revisionist children's books" approach, with Enid Blyton and the like... I don't for one minute think her attitudes towards many things were appropriate by today's standards, but she was a product of her time and class, and revising them without context or notes actually removes a layer of history and gives a false impression of how enlightened people were...I'm sure Harry Potter and so on will get exactly the same treatment at some point in the future. I think it's one of the reasons I like science fiction as much as I do, it's a way to talk about contemporary topics in disguise. I used to enjoy historical fiction too but these days you always get someone who will point out that so-and-so wouldn't have been wearing that particular style of lacing in their corset in that particular year....

Varric · 07/11/2019 17:05

One thing I have noticed, and many others have often commentated on......children that go to catholic schools (and therefore learn about God and often practice their religion) are better behaved than children who don’t.
@rainbowvalley17

What are you trying to say? That god somehow magically makes them better behaved? Or are those heathen atheist children just evil?

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 07/11/2019 17:07

are you kidding? The local catholic school in my town was notorious for their bad behaviour. It was a senior school but they bullied the hell out of the local primary school kids.

Sockmonster23 · 07/11/2019 17:53

What would you do xmas plays ? And Christmas songs etc? This is real life even the Royals play religious songs. Get over it. It's not a big deal it's just a song not a cult introduction.

BertrandRussell · 07/11/2019 17:56

“ I'm debating if it might be time to start a thread about politically correct nursery rhymes, stories and the like?“

Yes do. You’ll get loads of hysterical bollocks, of course. But all good fun til someone loses an eye.....

Alsohuman · 07/11/2019 18:05

Surely going with the flow and being tolerant and not easily offended is the best example to set your child?

Of course it is but that’s far too sensible.

ButterTarts · 07/11/2019 18:12

Oh good, potentially yet another tiresome thread about overblown, PC Gone Mad, nursery rhyme hysteria.

Best have it soon so we have enough time to fully get into the annual Banning Christmas threads.

Jimdandy · 07/11/2019 18:16

Oh please